1. Field
Methods and systems consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a method and system for providing a service for searching for friends, and more particularly, to a method and system for providing a searching capability for friends capable of being searched for and providing one or more friends existing in a position adjacent to a user using the friend search service.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, along with the development of digital technologies, portable terminals allowing communication and processing of personal information while moving, such as a mobile communication terminal, a personal digital assistant, an electronic organizer, a smart phone, a tablet personal computer (PC), etc., are being variously introduced. Such portable terminals do not remain in their traditional unique areas, but are reaching a mobile convergence phase covering the areas of other terminals. For example, a portable terminal may have various functions such as a voice call, a video call, a short message service (SMS), a multimedia message service (MMS), an electronic organizer, photographing, e-mail transmission/reception, a broadcast replay, a video file replay, Internet, electronic commerce, a music replay, schedule management, a social network service (SNS), a friend search service, a messenger, a dictionary, and a game.
In particular, the friend search service of searching for the position of others is a service which is recently drawing people's attention. The friend search service is a location-based service, and the conventional location-based service obtains location information of a portable terminal using a location detection technology (LDT) based on the communication network, and is a service that provides various services to the portable terminal based on the obtained location information.
However, the conventional location-based service allows a one-to one search service to only the users who use the same service (e.g., a friend search service) and have completed the authentication procedure for location checking between users, and registration between the users. Hence, according to the conventional location-based service, it is difficult for a user to check the locations of one or more friends existing in an area adjacent to the user.